


The world may end tomorrow (but not today)

by Luisa1804



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Dissociation, Guilt, Panic Attacks, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Season/Series 01, Protective Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Sharing a Bed, Time Travel, Vanya Hargreeves Deserves Better, Vanya Hargreeves-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 18:49:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21481108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luisa1804/pseuds/Luisa1804
Summary: Post Season 1. Can be read platonic or as Pre-Relationship Five/Vanya---“It'll be alright",  he says and she nods because that's probably what one's supposed to do.She caused the end of the world. She killed billions. She is the reason for the haunted look in Five's eyes. She is the bomb and will always go off and take everyone and everything with her.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 26
Kudos: 221
Collections: The Umbrella Academy





	The world may end tomorrow (but not today)

She can hear them talking. Her ears are still ringing from the gunshot and her head is pounding. She is trying to be invisible but for the first time in her life it's not working. Everyone is looking at her, pointing trembling fingers, voices getting louder.

  
She had tried to follow the conversation in the beginning. They're in the past. Five had taking them with him. They're trapped in their childhood bodies. It makes their voices sound weird. Young. 

  
“She caused the end of the world!” Was that Diego? Or Luther? Vanya isn't sure. They both hate her.

  
“ – do something about it!” She can see someone stepping closer and dares to look up for the first time. 

  
It's Ben. A weird, hot flash runs through her, before she's numb again. When did he come back? 

  
Klaus is standing behind him, fiddling with his fingers and watching her. He keeps close to Ben and moves with him, unconsciously, Vanya thinks.

  
Allison is sitting on the floor, crying. Luther and Diego are screaming. They ignore her, even as she tries to speak through her tears.

  
Five is kneeling in front of her. She flinches away from him and can't bear the look in his eyes. He moves back, but only a little, and does not touch her. He’s just there, watching her.

  
(In case she loses her mind again?)

  
“Vanya.” Ben again. It's weird to hear his voice. She had forgotten what it sounded like. “Are you – hurt?”

  
He'd meant to ask something else. More pointed, maybe. ‘Are you still insane?’

  
Luther and Diego fall quiet. She shrugges. Her ears are still ringing and she feels – unbalanced. Not quite here.

  
Everyone is still. Then Luther goes to Allison and Ben and Klaus turn to each other and Diego stalks off as far as he dares.

  
Five stands up and sits next to her. “It'll be alright", he says and she nods because that's probably what one's supposed to do.

  
She caused the end of the world. She killed billions. She is the reason for the haunted look in Five's eyes. She is the bomb and will always go off and take everyone and everything with her.

  
She shudders. Five reaches for her hand and she lets him have it.

\----

  
“Now Vanya -", Diego looks uncomfortable. “We all agreed”, he points his finger in a vague circle, “that it would be best if – someone stayed with you.”

She blinks at him. Nods. 

  
“I'll stay", that's Five. He still sitting next to her, still holding her hand. Diego looks relieved. She doesn’t look at anyone else.

  
They can't go back to the Academy. Not without more information. Are their younger self’s living there? Reginald for sure, right? How far back have you brought us, Five?

  
He snarles at them. Means he has no idea and is embarrassed about it. Vanya keeps quiet.

  
They'll find a newspaper tomorrow. And some money. Allison can take care of stuff like that. 

  
For now she convinces an receptionist to let them stay in their hotel overnight, no questions asked, no parents or money needed.

They all get handed a key but use only 4. Allison and Luther want to share, Klaus and Ben want to share, Vanya can't be left alone so Five has to share and Diego glares and takes a room for himself.

  
She is quiet as Five raids the mini fridge for alcohol and listens to his complains when all he finds are snacks and limo. 

  
It's only when he's quiet that she turns around to look at him. He is already staring at her.

  
She talks first. 

  
“I'm - I'm so so sorry, Five, please – I never meant to. I don't know what happened. Or – or I do, but I don't understand – I was just so scared in that room and then I was so angry and – oh, God, Pogo – and Allison before and -"

  
She can't breathe. She notices vaguely that she's sitting on the floor now. And then she notices Five, kneeling in front of her again, hands fluttering awkwardly like he wants to touch but is afraid to.

  
She knows why. Her sobs grow harder and she hadn't even noticed that she was crying. 

  
His voice starts to filter through the white noise in her head. “Vanya, you need to breathe. Everything will be alright. We can stop it from happening, together, all right? Vanya -" His voice is calm, like an anchor she desperately needs and she scrambles to take a hold of it. 

  
“Five -"

  
“Yes. I'm here.”

  
“Five, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault – the world you saw, what you had to live through – that was all me and, and -"

He hugging her. It awkward. He doesn't quite know where to put his hands and places them stiffly on her shoulders. He's rigged. Not used to hugging someone. 

  
Vanya hugs him back desperately.

  
“We'll fix it.”

\------

It's hours later and they're lying in bed. It's double sized but Vanya still has to concentrate on breathing right. 

  
They're both staring at he ceiling, pretending that they're trying to sleep.

Vanya can't stop thinking about the people she's killed.

  
It's Five, who breaks the silence.

  
“What room?”

  
“What?”, he had talked normally, but she whispers back.

  
“You said you were scared in ‘that room'. What room?”

  
“Oh", she has to swallow a ball of panic down. “There is a room underneath the academy. Father used to lock me in there, when he were children and he became scared of me and – my powers. Before he gave me the pills and Allison rumored me to forget. But I was in there for – a while.”

  
She has to take a deep breath. Her memories are still fuzzy and patchy but she remembers how afraid she had been, how lonely and how the darkness had seemed to swallow her whole. She remembers being afraid of never being able to leave again.

  
“When I came back to the Academy they brought me back there. Because I was dangerous. And then I broke free and -"

  
She stops. Five doesn't push. He's seen what happened after.

  
A minute later he talks again.

  
“Who did?”

  
She needs a second to understand.

  
“Oh. All of them?”, she stops. “No. Luther. The others argued with him, I could see it. And Allison tried to get past him – I don't know why I was so angry with them, too, if they tried – and Pogo hadn't been there at all -"

  
Five takes her hand again. She breathes and he says nothing.

  
They don't sleep. But they also never let go.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone interested in a squeal where Five acts on this newly discovered information? :D


End file.
